[USS BEAR]. -- [JARVIS, David H., 1st Lieut. (1862-1911)]. Report of the Cruise of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear and the Overland Expedition for the Relief of the Whalers in the Arctic Ocean, from November 27, 1897, to September 13, 1898. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899.
Tall 8vo. 68 plates after photographs, including one portrait engraving, large color-printed folding map at rear. Original pebbled blue cloth, gilt lettered spine (small spot of rubbing to gilt, interior joints discretely repaired). Provenance: Alfred P. Swineford (1836-1909), 2nd governor of the District of Alaska (ownership stamp in the gutter margin of p. 35; see inscription and letter below).
FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY THE COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION, D.H. JARVIS, TO THE FORMER GOVERNOR OF THE DISTRICT OF ALASKA. With a 1pp. ALS, 23 November 1903, from Jarvis to Swineford regarding the presentation of this book, pasted inside of the front cover: “My dear Governor: My part of this was written under compulsion by a very reluctant and inexperienced writer, and was not even proofread. I am not responsible for the ‘get-up’ of it but such as it is sent it to you with pleasure. With kind regards, I am, very truly yours, D.H. Jarvis”. Jarvis’ detailed report occupies 76 pages and includes his holograph corrections to an illustration caption facing p. 11. “Following the direct intervention of President McKinley, the Bear was equipped, and in November 1897 set out to rescue eight whaling ships which had become trapped in the ice near Point Barrow. Despite the difficulties involved in a winter mission to Arctic waters, the Bear and her crew managed to reach Seattle ten months later with four of the whaling crews, with no loss to its own complement of men.” This work documents the account of the cruise of the USS Bear in 1897-98 to Cape Vancouver, West Alaska, landing a party under the command of Lt. David H. Jarvis to go overland to Point Barrow, the northernmost point of Alaska, to rescue four whaling crews stranded in a sudden early Arctic freeze. The Jarvis party ultimately sledged to Seward Peninsula, purchased several hundred reindeer, then herded the reindeer across Kotzebue Sound, by the Kivalina and Meade Rivers to Point Barrow to feed and rescue the whalers - covering roughly 1500 miles and enduring temperatures as low as -45 degrees Fahrenheit during the Alaskan winter. The work includes texts of orders and letters, descriptions of traveling conditions and regions traversed, the Inuit peoples encountered, the purchase, care and dispensing of relief, including the reindeer. The three-man expedition consisted of Lt. D. H. Jarvis, 2nd Lt. E.P. Bertholf and Surgeon S.J. Call - all of whom received Congressional Gold Medals in 1902 for their heroic efforts. Lt. Bertholf later went on to become the first commandant of the United States Coast Guard.
AN IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY presented by the commanding lieutenant of the relief party to the former governor of the District of Alaska who was in office at the time of this expedition. Arctic Bibliography 18402; Ricks, p. 241; Wickersham 7604.